Delivery team poses during helicopter food delivery in NW Haiti
A fleet of 8 trucks deliver 50 tons of food for one days distribution
It takes about an hour to offload and count 50 tons of food that will feed 2000 families for two weeks.
UN peace keepers from Peru make sure the distribution is orderly and diciplined
Each family get 5 kilo pulse, 1.7 l oil and 25 kilo rice
Women exit the point of distribution with their 30 kilos of food stock.
Each shipment is verified by the World Food Program and AMURT staff early in the morning before distribution
Recipients get their food coupon the day before. Many opt to stand in line up to six hours before the distribution starts. Once the distribution starts the UN peace keepers keep order.
The General Carlos Alberto Santos Cruz has come to the National School in Bigot, Gonaives, where AMURT/EL is distributing food to the most in-need families at this period of emergency. The Commander of UN soldiers talked with our volunteers about the challenges of the reconstruction operations.
This day 2,000 families were bene(edited)d
The food is distributed though three stations: beans, oil and rice
UN peace keepers from Peru provide essential security for the distribution.
AMURT coordinators give recipient a helping hand in loading the 25 kilo rice sack every family receives
October 2, 2008. This day 2,000 families were benefited. Almost 50 tons of food were distributed
Picture taken: Sept 2008. More and more people come for food. Location: Gonaive, Haiti
Assisting with picking up large food bags
Assessing food distribution program
Women leaving with bags of food
Food awaiting distribution
Haitians leaving the compound with bags of food
People are waiting for the start of the distribution
AMURT and UN soldiers regulating distribution
Bags of food awaiting distribution
A line of more than 1300 people waiting for food
Food distribution in Gonaives
Heaving out mud and debris out of school
One of the schools in the work for food program scheduled for a complete cleanup
Food for work program in schools
Food for work cleanup at a school in Gonaives
Food distribution with the help of Peruvian UN battalion
First food distribution in Gonaives
Second food distribution in Gonaives
First water distribution after hurricane disaster
The food shortage is revealed even just by the desparation with which dock workers fight for each last grain of rice spilled after the loading of the food.
3 weeks after the hurricanes many areas are still flodded
The disaster has deepened the already profound isolation of this backward part of Haiti, making it a priority to direct the immediate reconstruction effort towards establishing all vital links of the area to the outside world
The floods have often brought along rivers of stones, covering roads and houses and cutting off vital access between villages
Flashfloods have severly impacted all shelters, forcing whole villages to the higher grounds and causing wide-spread suffering to people already brought to the edge by rising food prices and economic instability
The area's salt basins, once the major source of revenue for these impoverished villages, have now been completely destroyed. With the loss of revenue the villagers are facing an uncertain future of survival versus all odds
The floods have washed away all gardens, leading to massive food shortage about to hit the entire population living north of Gonaives
Food begins to trickle in, however it depends on very slowly boat transport...
Every grain counts
Food begins to trickle in, however the tremendous need is exasperated by a growing food scarcity, disrupted roads, and chaotic social situation
AMURT was one of the first disaster relief teams on the field, distributing 14 MTs of food in the hardest hit neighborhood, and setting up a Rapid Response Center to evaluate the situation
The future of Gonaives, one of Haiti's most revolutionary and potentially dynamic city, remains uncertain. Its hope is perged on the capacity of its people to find once again the strength within their minds and the compassion in their hearts, and the cooperation of the international community
Receding waters now allow residents to begin returning to their homes, however traffic is restricted to only large trucks
The city sits in a valley which does not have an easy drainage, making it an easy victim of the regular flashfloods coming down its eroded and environmentally degraded mountains
The mountains around Gonaives show the decades of abuse and lack of protective government laws prohibiting clearcutting. With no trees left the impact of cyclones is increased, and flashfloods remain one of the greatest danger
street traffic
The house of AMURT's mechanic, Fedo, is a typical example of what the residents will find when they manage to return back home. Fedo's 9-month pregnant wife spent two days on the roof of this house, holding on to the roofing so that the current does not carry her off
Debris and mud cover the majority of the houses, and the question of returning back home is still out for most residents of the city
The stream of refugees from the central areas to the higher grounds sometimes has to traverse chest-deep water, and signs of exhaustion and violence are everywhere
Large areas of the city are still submerged under water, forcing the residents to flee to temporary shelters and empeding any relief for days to come
This street was one of the liveliest market streets in Gonaives. Now the market is full of ragged groups of starving people exchanging their last supplies of scavenged food
The flashfloods return after even the smallest rain, regularly flooding the already battered city and making all attempts of disaster relief highly dangerous and sporadic
The force of the flashflood has carried trucks onto top of houses, revealing a scale of the disaster to be higher than previously predicted
Destruction in Central Gonaives
Large neighborhoods have been devastated to the point of almost complete destruction
Street Damage - Central Gonaives, September 11, 2008
AMURT staff walking through flooded streets and thick mud to relief programs
Streets of Gonaives
Streets of Gonaives
An inside view of a destroyed house
Madam telling her story
A couple badly affected by the hurricanes, tell their story to UN film maker
Filmaker from UN filming with our AMURT staff and community members from our zone
Walking through the streets
Walking through the streets
AMURT staff planning and assessing relief operations
AMURT staff planning and assessing relief operations
Destroyed cars litter the streets
Community meetings to arrange food distribution and food for work programs
Flooding and destruction weeks after the hurricane
People attempting to carry their belongings out of their destroyed houses
Typical scene of the flooded streets of Gonaives
Wading through the streets of Gonaives weeks after the hurricanes
Flooded villages in the northwest province weeks after the hurricane
Heavy flooding carves deep trenches and rivers through roads
Gonaive flooding
Floods in Gonaive Haiti
Gonaive flooding
A river of rocks. This once peaceful transit village of La Pie has been sweapt by a river of rocks which has severed the connection of all northern department with the south in numerous points.
